Closer to Paramount's South Pacific than to Melville's, this very loose adaptation of Typee is hardly among Allan Dwan's best late efforts: Dana Andrews and Jane Powell look uncomfortable as, respectively, a deserting whaler and a native siren, and the project looks a shambles next to Tennessee's Partner, The River's Edge or The Most Dangerous Man Alive. Swimming in dross, Dwan refuses to go into auto-pilot -- a sequence early on of Andrews and his feverish mate (Don Dubbins) making their way across a stream, unbroken and shot from a distance, uses space, nature and character for unexpectedly lyrical effects. In fact, Dwan's extensive use of long takes and medium and long shots suggests a conscious simplifying of the veteran director's stylistic palette that is not far from the similar artistic turns taken by Dreyer, Ford, and Rossellini. With Arthur Shields, and Ted de Corsia.
--- Fernando F. Croce
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